Attachment is a Dangerous Game
by RoyboyX
Summary: Her fiance's hooked up with his hired help, her juvie frienemy is back and pregnant, her father's killer is alive and all evidence of his innocence destroyed. A day after all these revelations, Emily can't catch a break when an illness reveals something about her.
1. Chapter 1

If I retched one more time, I thought I might have to cut out my stomach.

The night after I discovered my mother was alive, I had fainted out of sheer exhaustion from the day and all the revelations. It was almost too much to handle for a young woman, but like always, I survived.

When I awoke, Nolan was gone and I saw there was vomit on the couch. _Great_, I'd thought, _that'll be worse to clean out than blood._ I'd felt a need to hurl again and made a mad dash for the toilet, but realized I'd have a better chance getting to the sink and ran there instead. I'd hurled for ten minutes, and then fainted again.

That brought me to where I am now, lying on my bed with someone's hand on my forehead. I shook myself awake at the feeling.

"Dad?" I whispered out, clinging to some foolish, desperate hope that it was him soothing a fever.

"Fraid' it's just your good ol' Mr. Ross, Ems."

I jerked my head away from him and rolled my eyes.

"How the hell did you get in here, Nolan?" I groaned.

"Child's play, you left your door open."

That caused me to sit up and glare at him.

"You didn't lock it? What the hell were you thinking?! Someone could've-"

"Just went home for a bit, to get you some more intel from the box of evidence. Found you hurling and I've been here for an hour." He said, stuffing his face with Cheetos.

"Wash your hands before you give me whatever you have," I said, barely standing.

After doing just that, he took out a pen drive and plugged it into his laptop, which he'd left for me the previous night.

"By the way Ems, this might disturb you some more…"

"Nothing disturbs me, you should know that." I countered. "What?"

"Just found the Hamptons prince with a significant lack of clothing, a bottle of booze in one hand, and the hired help in the other, on his mother's little perch."

I glared at him. "Ashley?"

"Unless that was Bianca Lawson, yeah, the worst party planner in the world was kissing up your ex."

I sighed. "Typical. Daniel's always been a playboy."

"Are you angry?"

"Not really, I don't want him back if he's going to protect his father."

He nodded.

Just as he was about to open up the file on his computer, I clutched at my stomach again.

"God damn it…" I muttered as I rushed to the sink and hurled even more.

"I can't even… eat… anymore…." I said in between vomiting.

Nolan came over and held my hair back as I upchucked more and more of my stomach contents until I felt as though my lungs might combust.

"You should see a doctor," he said.

"No," I hissed. "No doctors, no hospital, no nothing." I stumbled into my bathroom.

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

I began to scramble around in search of the one thing that might explain all my problems.

"Where is the stick, damn it, where is the stick?!" I shouted.

"Emily, calm down! What stick?"

As I pulled a drawer out of its hinges, I found it.

"THERE!" I whispered with relief. I began to scramble opening the box, one of hundreds I had been purchasing ever since my relationship with Daniel had become serious. Even when I started to love him, I still was hesitant.

"Nolan, get out for a second." I said.

"But, Ems-"

"I said go!" and he shut the door.

"Okay…" I whispered. "Let's hope he kept up with my demands…"

I opened the box and took my answer out of its foil wrapper, and then washed my hands.

"Alright, you can do this, Aman-_Emily_. You can do it. Calm down…"

Normally I had a lot of confidence, but in this recurrent desperation I lost all composure as I struggled to prevent the unthinkable. I then hovered just above the toilet and pulled down my pants, urinating into a small cup included with the box. Once that was done, I the stick and dipped it into the cup for five seconds.

"Please, please…" I whispered. "Please, no…"

When I realized my eyes were squeezed shut, I opened them and stared down at the screen.

"It's a plus…" I whispered.

_Hold on._

_A plus?_

_Oh god._

_**Oh god.**_

_**Oh god…**_

I quickly dropped the cup, box and stick into the trash bin. _Maybe, after just a second, I'll forget about it,_ I thought. _Yes, it didn't happen._

_Who am I kidding? It did._

Nolan knocked on the door. "Emily, you okay?"

I didn't answer.

"Emily!"

The tears had come slowly at first, before I began to sob. Not violently, but not softly either.

"Damn it, Ems, you can't keep me in the dark about these things any more!"

I stood up and opened the door, then sank back against the wall.

"Hey, Ems, what is it?" I wiped tears away, ashamed he was seeing the vindictive Emily Thorne crying.

"Emily, come on…"

Sniffing, I could only form the word,

"Pregnant."

Nolan did a double-take. "WHAT?! O-M-G, for the second time in a row..."

I clutched at my stomach, now having the knowledge of why I was sick. I wasn't catching the winter flu or exhausted from all the revelations of yesterday.

_I was pregnant, and it was all his fault._

"Emily… you're saying, _you're_ pregnant, too, like Amanda?" Nolan asked.

I nodded.

"So, it must be Daniel's."

That was the only logical explanation: Daniel, the spawn of my sworn enemy, his own mother, got me pregnant. I was carrying the grandchild of Victoria and Conrad, the people who destroyed my family.

"I told Daniel every time we had sex to wear a condom, said I believed in that dumb tradition of marriage before pregnancy,"

I rubbed my belly and continued, "But I guess that it went south a few nights ago, when you got kidnapped. He was exhausted, and I'd forgotten all about our little rule… so he ejaculated inside of me, and now I'm pregnant."

"Are you going to tell him?"

I glared at him. "Hell no! I'm going to the abortion clinic,"

"Wait!" I glared at him as I was standing up. "Ems… are you sure you want to do that?"

"Don't tell me you're pro-life," I said.

"No, no, of course not, I think girls can do whatever they want with their bodies. Anyway… do you really want to end the baby's life? Haven't you ever wanted a family?"

"Not one where I was married to the offspring of my enemy, nor where I continued his wretched family." I said.

"Wasn't marrying him part of the plan?"

"It probably will have to be now; I just hope I can keep him from talking me into having children." I said.

"And besides, I'm not the right kind of person to be a mother. I don't know anything about motherhood because I never had one for most of my life, and I'm evil, Nolan. My baby would only be in danger. What if Victoria found out who I was and took my baby from me? Attachment is a dangerous game."

He was unfazed by my rambling.

"Okay…"

"And if you makes you feel any better," I said to him, "I'd sooner have your baby than his."

He winked.

"Alright then."


	2. Chapter 2

Nolan followed me out the door.

"Wait, Ems, before you go-"

I whirled around. "God, Nolan what?"

He swallowed. "Can you at least… find out what the baby is?"

"You mean its gender?"

He nodded. "Yeah… kinda want to know what to tell Danny if we ever do."

"We are not telling him at all, he's never to know I was pregnant, okay?"

"Okay… but please, find out the gender?"

After a second of pondering, I nodded. "Alright, fine. I'll let you know when I get back."

…

"Well, Ms. Thorne, it looks like you have a healthy baby girl. Congratulations," said Carson Zigray, the doctor.

"Thank you," I said, finally glad to have finished the ultrasound.

I pulled my shirt back down when he took the plug off and then did up my jacket.

"Uh, Ms. Thorne," he said, just as I was about to leave.

"Yes?"

"Are you alright? I noticed you had some cuts on your face,"

I turned around and gave a sweet smile.

"Yes I'm fine, I just fell when I was out for a run."

"Okay… have a good day."

"You too."

So, for once in the Grayson lineage, a girl was born. I wondered if the family, should I have stayed with Daniel and should he have learned of the child, would let her one day become the CEO of Grayson Global.

That was not to happen of course, because I would never let the Graysons anywhere near her. The only family I would allow her to know would be my own. She would know her grandfather was innocent, and meet her grandmother.

Besides, this baby wasn't going to be surviving the day, not if she was the granddaughter of Victoria.

I took out my phone and dialed Nolan's number.

"Hello, your royal evilness," he purred.

"It's a girl, Nolan," I said.

"_Interesting_… the Graysons seem to have a history of having sons, wonder what genetics you might have."

"In any case, I'm going to save it from its grandparents."

"Are you sure, Ems? You didn't take out Snow-Cap when you had the chance, which shows you're not capable of murder."

"It's a two-celled organism, Nolan, if I don't get rid of it now it will grow into a baby and _then_ it's murder."

After a brief pause, he said, "Oh, um… alright, you do that. There's a visitor here."

"Is it Daniel?" I asked.

"Mmm… yes, it is."

"Alright, keep mum about it. I don't need him to come stopping me."

"Will do, Ems." He hung up.

I got into my car, and suddenly had the feeling I wasn't alone.

"Who the hell is in here?" I demanded.

A gun clicked behind me. I turned around and saw it was the very "Snow-Cap" Nolan was talking about.

"Would you like a rematch?" I asked.

That was when he grabbed me by the hair and pushed my head back while he stuffed a cloth in my face; no doubt chloroform. My vision grew blurred, before I blacked out.

…

I awoke to find myself cuffed to the wall, the same way as I was just days ago. The white-haired man smiled when he saw I was awake.

"Pleasant dreams, Miss Clarke?" he asked.

"If you abducted me to get Grayson's evidence, you've wasted your time. Every shred of it burned on that plane, along with Victoria and Ms. Davis," I said.

"I'm here to offer you an ultimatum," he said. "Now that you know of us, it is obvious that you will attempt to take us down in flames, like the Graysons. But you shouldn't, Amanda. Americon Initiative is far larger and far more dangerous than you could ever realize."

"Let me guess, if I fail to meet your demands you'll tell Conrad who I am?"

"That, and something far worse. We will take away everyone you love. Mr. Ross, for one. I know how you pretend not to care for him, but it's quite obvious you do. He thinks you're family, doesn't he?"

I didn't answer.

"In addition to Mr. Ross, you'll find your mother, sweetheart and sister will be the casualties of your stubborn refusal to stay out of our affairs."

"Keep in mind, 'Snow-Cap', I have no intention of being merciful to you if we happen to spar again."

He chuckled. "Snow-Cap? Is that what you've taken to calling me?"

"It's what Nolan's taken." I said.

"I suppose you deserve to know my identity. Gordon Murphy,"

"That's a little odd for a cold-hearted assassin," I remarked.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Also…" he pointed to my stomach. "You may want to keep that around for a while, because your ex-fiancé _is_ going to be informed of your impending bundle of joy."

"How did you know I was pregnant?" I demanded.

"I count Dr. Carson Zigray as a close friend of mine." He gestured to a body in the corner.

"What would you get out of forcing me to start a family with Daniel?"

"Well, not your suffering, because I can't say I hold the same deadly grudge you hold against me. But trust me Amanda, I know how mothers are with their children. They form attachments to them, and attachments can be a very dangerous game."

"Tell me about it," I said.

He took out a gun and fired.

I expected a hole would be in between my eyes or in my heart, but it was in neither. In fact, no part of my body was beginning to bleed out. When I jerked myself to the side to avoid death, I found I must have ripped my chains off the wall.

No, he shot them off the wall.

"Be grateful I let you live," he said, "Because were it not for the offer I needed to make it wouldn't have been the chains I killed."

He tossed a key to me, which obviously would open the cuffs. I freed myself and massaged my wrists.

"Get out before I change my mind," he said.

I did just that, stealing a pen drive off his desk before I left.

Stop trying to take down the conspiracy?

Hell no.

…

_A/N: Decided I might as well continue the story. The doctor is the ER doctor from Intuition that talks to Emily, Charlotte and Jack about Amanda and Carl._


	3. Chapter 3

I practically broke down the front door getting home.

"Nolan?" I called out.

He was laid out on the couch, watching what must have been a gay porn video on his laptop, since I heard two men moaning.

"Can you jack yourself off later? I need you to see what's on this," I said, tossing the pen drive I stole onto his keyboard.

"Why would you get a stick out of a snap of your womb?" he asked.

"The white-haired man kidnapped me just as I got out of the hospital."

"What?! Ems, are you alright?"

"Peachy… he threatened you kill you and those close to me if I came after the Initiative." He didn't answer. "Don't tell me you agree with him."

"No, just saying… is it gone?"

I heard hammering on the door.

"Could he be here to finish the job?" he asked.

I pulled the curtains back and saw that it was Daniel. He was dressed in a suit, without a single winter coat on. Nolan instantly buttoned up his pants and slid the laptop under the couch.

"I didn't tell him anything!" Nolan cried.

"No, you didn't. He did," I said.

"The white-haired man?"

"Yes. By the way, his name's Gordon Murphy." I said. I waited a second for Nolan to stop laughing before opening the door.

"Daniel…" I said. He pushed past me. "Come on in..." I muttered.

"So now you've decided you like tech nerds over hunky bartenders?" he growled.

"Nolan and I are not seeing each other, Daniel. He's just staying the night, that's all."

"Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?!" he demanded. "Decided to do away with our baby when you couldn't commit to me?!"

"You're pretty fast, too you know." I said. "That _was_ Ashley who was the topless darker-skinned girl you were kissing on the turret, wasn't it?"

"At least Ashley doesn't have the instinct to cheat on me."

"I wasn't cheating on you! Jack's dog was dying on my floor, and we did out of pure depression. What united us as friends was gone and we didn't know what we were doing. Who even told you I'm pregnant?" I said. He waited a few seconds before answering.

"A close associate," he replied.

"How close?"

He groaned. "Just some guy my mother hired to track you since she hates you so much… did you hear by the way?"

"Yes, Daniel, and I'm very sorry." I said, with a little too much disdain.

"So, now that you know you're going to be a father, what exactly do you want?" I asked.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled something out of his pocket. I could barely see what it was until it was on my finger. It was our engagement ring.

"Are you serious, Daniel?! I told you we've changed too much."

"You're going to be a mother, Emily, to _Victoria Grayson, Jr._"

Inside, I was screaming at the top of my lungs as my way of protesting the name.

"You realize it's in my body, right? I can do whatever I want with it."

"I'll have guards planted outside every abortion clinic in New York."

"I'll take it out of my uterus and destroy it."

"That'll be murder."

"You can't make me keep this child! Now get out!" I screamed. He didn't budge, so I grabbed my gun and pointed it at his heart.

"Get out NOW!" with a glare, he turned and left.

When I was sure he was gone, I tossed the gun onto my staircase and ripped the ring off, throwing it as far as I could into the freezing ocean. It could be a snack for a hungry starfish or be found by a desperate beachcomber, I didn't care.

"Emily!" Nolan shouted.

"Nolan, get started on running the drive." I took the gun again and set it beside him.

"Try to keep up the fort while I'm gone." I said.

"What are you planning to do?" he asked.

"Destroy a relationship."

…

Checking for the tenth time that the coast was clear, I knocked on the poolhouse door. She opened it, just as I hoped she would.

"Emily, what the hell are you doing here?" she asked.

"Nice way to greet a friend, _friend_." I said.

"You two-timed poor Daniel, just a day before his mother's death."

"Wasn't it you who told Daniel you saw Jack and I kissing?"

"He deserved to know the truth."

I pushed past her into the poolhouse and shut the door.

"Get out, you're not welcome here!"

"He deserves not to have his heart broken. I am not having an affair with Jack, we only kissed out of a lack of nothing else to do to comfort each other in grief."

She raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure you saw the blanket covering something on the floor? That was his dying dog Sammy, one of the last connections to his _childhood_. His dog is how we met, actually. Besides, he's going to be a father now that Amanda's returned from wherever. Their baby boy is due in three months."

"I still don't get why you're telling me this?"

"To show you I was not the unfaithful one in our relationship." I pulled out a photograph of the fetus in my body and handed it to her, placing a hand on my stomach to prove the point.

"You're pregnant too?" she practically fainted.

"Apparently only for a few days. I didn't keep up with my rule telling him to wear a condom. I was going to get an abortion, but he's trying to blackmail me to be the mother to our daughter. I don't even want the child."

"And why not?"

"You know _exactly_ why, Ashley. Remember six years ago, when we met in Chechnya as I was trying to help your half-brother rescue you, and you abandoned him after he killed your employers? Did you enjoy prostituting yourself?"

"I assume you have a point?"

"I wasn't just some girl being trained to take on a group of bullies who picked on me in the tenth grade. No, my father was framed by the Graysons for their downing of a jetliner, and they worked with a terrorist group, an assassin and six other scumbags to ensure he couldn't exonerate himself."

She gasped.

"So you're…"

"My name is Amanda Clarke, and yes, I'm responsible for all of the events that have transpired this summer. I exposed an affair, crumbled careers and burned down a second home, and I almost became a killer."

"_Almost_? You're saying you didn't kill Frank or Tyler?"

"I will not name the true people behind their deaths, but I will say that they were killed by close associates of mine."

"Who the hell do you work for?"

"Someone you've barely met."

"You realize I could very easily tell Daniel and Conrad."

"You won't," I said. "You're going to not become an obstacle to my plans like Tyler and Amanda and you're going to go back to whatever tomato garden you came from in Croydon, or I could expose your crime of leaking legal evidence online and have you put away for a while."

"You're a piece of scum on my designer heels, Ashley. You don't even love Daniel. You're using each other. I did love him, once, before he covered up the truth about my father and kept his out of prison."

She clenched her fists and stomped her foot.

"What do you want me to do?"

"A car is going to pick you up in approximately one hour. They will call you and you _will_ pack your things and get into the car and go far away from here. If you want to be a social climber, try getting into David Cameron's pants." I said, turning around and leaving.

"Oh, and if you don't, I _will_ inform the ladies who make up the not-so-dearly departed Queen Victoria's court of your trampy beginnings, and they don't like trampy beginnings."

…

As I was speaking to Ashley, I had slipped her Grayson Global access card out of her dress. It would no doubt come in handy in infiltrating the company.

"Did you find anything, Nolan?" I asked.

"Quite a bit, actually. Cotton-top seems to be very bad at keeping secrets. Decrypting the drive was child's play."

"And?"

"He's got a bunch of friends including one in a high place in Americon Initiative. Exhibit A, Helen Crowley." He pulled up a file showing her image and some details about her. She was not married and had no children and she looked very domineering. She had her hair tied up into a tight bun and flashed a very creepy smile.

I took out the Infinity Box from its new compartment, extracting a photo of Ashley and striking a red X across her face.

"You took out the world's worst party planner?"

"Had my old juvie warden pick her up. She'll do _hard_ therapy on her, make her forget everything about the Hamptons. I think it involves a straightjacket." I said, both of us cracking a laugh.

He unplugged the port, putting it into the Infinity Box and stuffing it back into its compartment.

"Guess we know who's next on the to-screw list."

"Let's pay Ms. Crowley a visit," I said.

…

_A/N: I want to work Aiden and Padma into the story but don't have any idea how to do so. Tips?_


	4. Chapter 4

Sedating Helen Crowley in her Manhatten apartment had been sadly too easy a task. I don't like complications in my plans, but I do revel in the rush of excitement.

Being that I was climbing up her apartment building from the outside rather than the inside, I expected I would quickly be noticed and therefore over-prepared my disguise. But since her building was relatively suburban and no one was outside today, getting in was child's play.

"Two more levels, then you're good to go," Nolan said through my wire. He was monitoring the whole thing through a camera he implanted on my buttons. We were able to speak to each other, although for the sake of stealth, he would be doing the talking.

Hoisting over the balcony I'd just grabbed, I leaped up to grab the next one, and pulled myself up. When I leaped to Helen Crowley's balcony, I grabbed hold of the ledge for a good second, but lost my grip and started falling.

"EMS!" Nolan screamed. Luckily, I managed to land on the balcony below, and jumped up again, holding the ledge in a death grip and pulling over.

"Nice to know you're on your toes," Nolan said.

"It's a useful survival skill." I replied. Now to get in.

Extracting the bobby pin from my hair, I got to work picking the lock on her balcony door, also child's play.

I opened the door slowly and quietly, biting my lip though I was not in danger of making a sound. I couldn't see my new target anywhere, but I could hear her voice. _She must be in another room_.

"Can you track her heat signature?" I asked Nolan.

"One sec… and, yes… she's in the doorway to your right."

I saw that there were two doorways in the wall in front of me, one to the left, and the other to the right. The middle contained a black wall, no doubt a safe for whatever miserable secrets Helen Crowley hid for the Initiative.

Crouching, I slowly walked behind the kitchen table and rolled to the wall. I stood up and pressed myself against it, sliding across it while looking through the doorway. She was sitting on a sofa wearing casual clothing and taking notes on something.

I took out my bottle of chloroform and poured it onto a towel I'd grabbed from the kitchen, then as quickly and quietly as possible crawled behind her, stood up, and at the perfect moment, stuffed the cloth in her face. When I was sure she was unconscious, I started to look for her strongest chair.

"Apartment secured," I said to Nolan.

"Mr. Bond would be proud." He said.

…

When Helen came to, she found her wrists and ankles restrained by chains to a stiff-looking rocking chair.

"What the hell?!" she asked. "What have you done, Murphy?!"

"Don't credit him," I said. "Credit the woman he nearly killed."

She finally noticed me leaning against the corner, clutching a gun.

"Who are you?!"

"Try one of your many victims."

"What victims are you talking about? I'm the CEO of United for Animals. If you're talking about the cats and dogs I've had to euthanize…"

"Stop trying to play the innocent victim here, Ms. Crowley. I know you're not some PETA-wannabe. You're described as being in a very high place at Americon Initiative. Besides, you just mentioned the name of one of your best assassins, Gordon Murphy."

"I'm afraid your allegations are ridiculous, I've no such ties to an extremist group."

"I looked at your little pad of notes, you know, the notes about Grayson Global you were jotting down? I'm not leaving without some explanation as to your role in Americon, and some answers to my questions." That was when I pointed my gun at her and removed the safety.

"Again, who are you?"

"You assisted Conrad and Victoria Grayson in framing my father for your heinous attack on the US. You forced my mother to disappear, and you locked me in foster care."

"David Clarke and Kara Wallace… you must be Amanda, then."

I smirked.

"To be honest, I'm very impressed. Our file on you shows that you had no violent tendencies as a nine-year-old girl. You were so gentle, wouldn't let an ant be hurt."

"Until I became that ant," I said.

"You contracted Gordon Murphy to destroy the plane carrying Victoria Grayson and Lydia Davis to Washington to testify against the conspiracy, killing them and any evidence of your involvement." I continued.

"I believe that's true, yes." She nodded.

"Gordon Murphy told me I was a hell of a fighter like my mother. Did he know her? Was he hired to kill her like he killed my father?"

"Mr. Murphy can be quite rogueing sometimes, Miss Clarke. He does not always follow orders. He was in fact hired to kill Mrs. Clarke, but that was one such order he defied."

"What did he do to her, then?"

She gestured to her notepad. "You saw my notes, ask them."

I read them over quickly, finding the notes on my parents. David Clarke was listed as "DECEASED", Kara Clarke was listed as "ALIVE" and I was listed as "STATUS UNKNOWN".

"So it says she's alive… but that doesn't tell me _where_. Why was she kept from me all this time?"

"Your mother locked herself up so that she could protect you."

"And why would she need to protect me from herself?" I demanded.

"Don't you remember your last moment with her?" she asked.

As she was implying, I couldn't.

"What else do you know about her?"

Before she could answer, her chest was pierced as she opened her jaw and blood dripped from a hole blown clean through her. I spun around, gun pointed at the shooter.

It was my father's killer.

"Miss Crowley is a bit of a Chatty Cathy, Miss Clarke." He kept his gun pointed at my head as he came closer.

"You're very headstrong, stealing that pen drive from me when I told you to stand down. Now I'm afraid you have become a liability. And liabilities, Amanda, never survive when I'm around."

As he lunged at me, I shot his gun right out of his hand and quickly picked it up. It had a silencer on it, so hopefully it was enough to keep the struggle quiet.

Before he could stand up, I used his own gun on him, pumping his back full of bullets.

"Now I've honored my father, you son of a bitch." I said.

I grabbed both guns, Helen's notes and Murphy's car keys and stuffed them into my backpack, then made a mad dash for the window. I thought it could be a seven, maybe eight story drop, but no trouble. _No trouble at all,_ _if I could just land in the dumpster below_…

"Ems, you okay?" Nolan asked.

"Surprised you were quiet as a mouse all that time…"

"You got two bodies on your hands, batgirl. What's our next move?"

That was when I took a swan dive off the ledge, bouncing off the dumpster lid and rolling on the ground.

"Better than Lara Croft," Nolan teased.

"Let's just see where our friend's car is and get what we can from it."

Clicking the panic button on the keys, I followed the sound of the alarm to its source. _There_.

I started searching the car, checking under the seats for a gun, more notes, anything, when I heard something that sounded like it was being muffled. It was too quiet to have been anywhere in the car.

_The trunk_.

I opened up the trunk, nearly doing a double-take at the woman tied u, gagged and stuffed in the tight trunk space.

"Victoria…"


	5. Chapter 5

Her panic-stricken eyes darted several different ways before settling on mine. I pulled the duct tape off her mouth as lightly as I could, suppressing the urge to rip it off and hear her expression of pain.

"Emily?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Do you remember what happened to you, Victoria?"

She nodded, still quite in shock. "An old man with hair the color of snow… he was ruthless, Emily… he threatened that I would die if I didn't get on the plane… oh god, and he killed Lydia and Agent McGowen…"

_As if you regret Lydia's death_, I thought.

"Did he threaten you into paying a ransom?"

I nodded. "Yes. I gave him $500,000 and he told me where his car was before jumping off the balcony. I couldn't find a trace of him."

"Which means he's still out there," she said. "Please, will you untie me?"

As much as I would have liked to leave her there suffering, I took out the switchblade by her feet and slashed through her ropes before helping her get out of the car.

"Do you know why this happened?"

"_Conrad,"_ she seethed. "It's rather obvious. He was trying to kill me and destroy federal evidence I was going to present that would throw him in jail. He hired that man to blow up the plane, but my abductor decided to let me live and take out Conrad in exchange for a payment."

I took all this in as we headed back to my car. "Is there anywhere you can go?"

"Please drive me to the police station."

"Okay."

I pulled up in front of the entrance twenty minutes later. Victoria asked me to stop just outside, saying she would go in herself.

When I returned home, I expected Nolan would grill me for information. The descent from the building seemed to have knocked out our wire, so I was unable to reach him when I'd dropped off Victoria.

"Emily, oh my god!" he ran over and threw his arms around me.

"Um, Nolan…"

"Sorry," he said as he let go. "I didn't know whether the fall killed you or not, or you didn't quite kill the psycho and he shot you."

"The jump must have knocked out our comms… Nolan, I found Victoria in the white-haired man's car."

"Come again?"

I nodded. "She told me he was hired to destroy the plane by Conrad, but that he warned her and offered to take down Conrad in exchange for a ransom."

"Does she have any clue about the bodies?"

"No, but you'd better hire a guy to take care of them. I know this little freezer out on the highway where he can take the bodies."

"On it." He walked off as he phoned a contractor. "It's Nolan; I have a job for you."

My phone suddenly rang. _Who the hell could it be?_ "Hello?" I answered.

"You are a thorn in our side, Miss Clarke," said a warped, alien-like voice. "I demand to meet. Under the docks tonight at 10pm… come alone."

Before I could get the chance to reply, the phone call ended. I couldn't have Nolan trace the number without him asking all sorts of questions, so I decided I would have to see just who the Initiative would be sending for me now.

…

Hours after Nolan assured me his contractor had delivered the bodies of Murphy and Crowley to the freezer, I waited until 10pm before I dressed in the black hood I always wore for stealth missions, stuffed my gun into my pants pocket and came to the pier.

"Who the hell is this?" I called out.

"An old friend," said someone who activated a gun behind me.

I whirled around, taking my weapon out, and becoming shocked again for the third time in several days.

"_Tyler…"_

He smirked.

"How?"

He burst into a full grin.

"I think you'll be quite shocked to learn that I'm CIA."

"You're not serious… You'd never be CIA with your condition." I replied.

"Here's my proof," he said, tossing something to me. It was a badge.

"My contacts at the CIA helped me to fake my own death. It was your mentor, Mr. Takeda, who helped me to set Daniel up for the purpose of taking down the Graysons. I had a bulletproof vest and blood packets under my tux, which created the perfect murder, and when I got to the morgue, the CIA was there to extract me, and now, we've placed a mole in Grayson Global to destroy it. Believe it or not, Emily, I've been helping you."

_Really? He faked being a Harvard student and pretended to be a psychopath just to help me?_

"I don't trust you."

"Smart girl. Not easily trusting people."

"You stabbed Nolan and left him to die. Not the best boyfriend material," I said.

"I was just trying to help."

"Lower your gun then."

He did so, and I followed cautiously.

"You should also know that I am not schizophrenic. I merely acted that way while swallowing Tic Tacs."

"Aren't you just the master of deception? Why did you frame Daniel for your _death_ when I needed to marry him to access Conrad's files?"

"Conrad's evidence would have ended up in SEC hands anyway. If Victoria didn't give it to Daniel, I would've stolen it and sent it."

I pondered this new revelation for a second. "Why frame Jack?"

Tyler scowled. "Because he has my son."

_What?_

"Your son?" I asked.

"Jack isn't the father of Amanda's child, I am. I raped her when I kidnapped her, that's why she was crying over the phone, not because of the abduction. I want my son."

"You do realize that she loves Jack, not you. She'll believe whatever she wants."

He smirked. "Sensei!"

An all-too familiar figure appeared from the shadows and nodded at me. "Emily."

"Takeda. I should've known you let Amanda go. Why?"

"You failed to listen to me when I told you not to let your heart get in the way of your desire for vengeance. Amanda will not complicate your plans, I've trained her to assist you in any way you need. In the meantime, she is going to keep you away from your distractions."

"Get out of here before I shoot you."

He smirked and took a bow. "As you wish." And just like that, he was gone.

"As for you, Tyler."

He nodded.

"If you're going to help me, you will start by taking Amanda away from Jack."

When he didn't answer, my finger tightened over the trigger.

"I'm serious."

Tyler chuckled.

"Okay, revenge princess. While I was in hiding, I took the liberty of stealing this from Gordon Murphy."

He handed a photograph to me. I saw that it had him and a happy-looking blond woman in a white wedding dress.

"Oh my god…"

_It was my mother._


	6. Chapter 6

"WHAT?!"

Nolan was curled into a ball on the floor out of terror. He hadn't taken the news that Tyler was alive well, so the news of my mother's marital status came as no shock to him.

"We may have no choice but to bring him onboard as a confidante." I said.

He shook his head fast. "No, no and no. I don't care about Amanda, but do NOT let my crazy boyfriend near me again!"

"I'll try not to, but I can't promise you'll never see him again."

He didn't stop with the ball behavior. "Oh stop that, Nolan. A few days ago you told me you found something in Conrad's evidence but never told me what. Remember?"

He nodded. "Yeah, check under the couch cushions."

I did, and found two passports. One belonged to my mother, the other Gordon Murphy. His identified himself as "David Clarke" and my mother's identified her as "Amanda Clarke". I scoffed.

_So he steals my name to preserve the sham of a marriage they have._

"Nolan, it's more important than ever that I find her, so I can tell her that her husband was a nutcase."

…

"Are you sure these passports can't lead to my mother now?"

"No, I ran them ten times. I can run them 30 times, but they'll never pop up in the system."

I scowled. "Damn it!"

"If I can offer up a suggestion, why not try playing sockpuppet with your evil twin, grill Victoria for information? In the meantime, I'll make myself useful and screw around with Ashley's GG card and see if I can make something of it."

"Thank you, Nolan." I hung up.

I had gotten into my car and started driving off to nowhere in particular, but now I had a destination, the Stowaway. By the time I got there, it was happy hour.

"Getting good cash today?" I asked Jack.

He turned with a smile. "Hey, yeah… this cash could probably take me to Santa Monica!"

I smiled.

"Is Amanda around? I wanted to see her, I have something for her."

He nodded. "Yeah, just up the stairs."

I followed his directions and knocked on his bedroom door. "Come in!" Amanda said.

"Hello, Emily…" she said. I nodded. "Hello, Amanda."

She sat on her bed for several moments and I stood, an awkward silence filling the room. It was almost deafening.

"Takeda told me he trained you to keep Jack occupied and still assist me when I needed help. Is that correct?" I asked rather bluntly.

"Yeah… but I'm not keeping Jack occupied. I love him, and he loves me, and nothing you do will change that. You won't get rid of me so easily this time."

"But the difference, Amanda, is that he thinks you're me. How real can it be?"

"Plenty, especially once the baby comes. We're naming him after his dad and yours: Carl David Porter."

"How dare you, why not just have a daughter too, and steal my mother's name?"

Before I could say anything else, Jack came in. "How's it going, girls?"

I smiled. "Amanda, should you tell Jack or should I?" It had taken me approximately 2.1 seconds to come up with a plausible lie.

"Go for it."

"Amanda has just asked me to be the baby's godmother."

Jack grinned, and I took great pleasure in watching Amanda squirm. _I'll show you who's boss, bitch._

…

Once it was established that I would become the godparent of Carl Porter Jr., I took Amanda out for a walk.

"Really, Emily? Why did you do that?"

"You should be thanking me. If I'm your baby's godparent then he'll be the safest he can be."

"And so will Jack, but not me I assume?" she demanded.

I groaned. "I'm going to ask you to prove your loyalty to me right now."

"Why is that?"

"Because if you're planning to help me, you can do this: find my mother."

"What? You told me she died when you were a kid."

"That's what everyone thought, but the plot thickens; for some reason my father lied. She's still alive, and she married the killer of my father. I need you to help me get Victoria to crack."

She contemplated the proposition.

"Well?"

"Fine. Just tell me when and where."

I nodded.

I decided I would keep from her the facts that I was pregnant too and that Tyler was her baby's father, at least for now.

…

"Set up your wire equipment and your radios, we're ready for another interrogation." I told Nolan as I came back to the house.

"So you are playing sockpuppet again?" he asked.

I nodded. "I've set up bugs in Grayson Manor so we can view the whole thing; Amanda's going to be radioed; now all we need is for the Ice Queen to return to her palace."

"Copy that…"

After about another hour, I watched as Conrad and Daniel were ambushed by police and FBI pushing through the front door.

"What the hell is this?" Conrad demanded.

And in walked his queen, cloaked in a shawl, no trace of the shaken abductee I located in Gordon Murphy's trunk.

"Oh my god," Daniel asked.

"Darling, oh!" Victoria took Daniel into her arms and I could see her shooting a glare at Conrad, but where was Charlotte?

"Why is Charlotte not there?" I asked out loud.

"You didn't hear? Little sis swallowed one too many pills the night our revenge plan –" he stopped when I shot a glare at him – "sorry,_ your_ revenge plan went south."

I hadn't realized. I was too busy worried about Amanda's pregnancy, my pregnancy, the news about my mother, Victoria's supposed death and the whole entire clusterfuck that was my revenge plan. This new piece of news caused me to become silent for a moment.

"Ems?"

I didn't answer.

"Emily?"

I stood up. "What hospital was she taken to?"

"She's in rehab, actually. Here," he said. "I'll write you the address".

I took the slip of paper from him and stuffed it into my pocket. "I need to see her".

"Last I checked, little Clarke wasn't as energetic as she always is. She's stopped doing pills, though."

I ran out the door.


	7. Chapter 7

"I'm sorry Ms. Thorne, but at the moment Ms. Grayson is only allowed to receive family visitors."

My façade of a nice young lady who was at no risk of flat out screaming shit at the receptionist was crumbling quickly. _Amazing how family matters could cause that_, I thought. _They're the only thing I love in this bleak world, and yet they turn me into something I'm not._

"Emily?"

I turned around and saw Charlotte. She was in a wheelchair and wore a hospital gown. Her skin was pale, her deep brown eyes bloodshot, and her hair was tied back into a ponytail, which if I remembered correctly was a style she loathed.

"Hi, Charlotte, I was just dropping off these flowers, but the receptionist isn't taking too kindly."

"Anaya, stop being so damn stuck-up," Charlotte said. "You can keep Jill and Becca from seeing me, but damn it let me see my future sister-in-law."

Anaya the receptionist tried to suppress a groan, but nodded at Charlotte, who gestured for me to follow her and the nurse pushing her wheelchair. We entered what was obviously Charlotte's room at the rehab center. The mirror frame was adorned with photos of various people: her parents, Daniel, Declan and a hot-looking young guy with blue eyes and black hair (who I assumed to be a past boyfriend of hers).

The nurse left us alone. There was awkward silence for a few minutes, but Charlotte finally broke it.

"Did you hear about my mother?"

I nodded. "I'm really sorry, Charlotte…" _If only she knew._

My sister smiled. "She was a woman of many secrets and complications." I resisted the urge to say _Amen_.

"How is the center treating you?" I asked her.

"They say I should put on some makeup because I look like hell, when right now I could care less for makeup. As much as my mother was important to me, her social machinations are the least of my priorities. I've stopped doing drugs at least, which I suppose will help me in the long run, but I'll need a new way of coping with my grief."

"Grief for me is a life sentence without clemency." I said outright, without even planning it.

Charlotte blinked several times. "Why is that?"

I coughed. "Charlotte, there's something you should really know. But…" I moved in closer to her. "You have to trust me, okay? I need to know you won't relapse after I tell you this, because it might as well make you. You've got people who need you. Okay? Can I say my piece?"

Charlotte was confused as hell, but she nodded.

"It's about your father, Charlotte. David Clarke."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "All I know is that he was guilty of a crime…" she paused. "He _was_, wasn't he? And Amanda burned down Mason Treadwell's house."

"Here's the thing, Charlotte. What I'm about to tell you might make you hate your mother."

"Why would I hate her? She only just burned to death in a plane crash a few days ago!"

"In order to tell you about that, Charlotte, I have to tell you about Dad."

Charlotte paused. _"Dad?_ Emily, what are you implying?_"_

I swallowed. _God, this is harder than I thought it would be. She's so, so fragile. I might kill her by doing this._

"I was born July 1984, in Harlem, New York. My father was David Hammond Clarke, my mother, Kara Alexandra Wallace. When I was five, Kara supposedly died, but she didn't really, she went away and I haven't heard of her since. Dad took me to the Hamptons, where he fell in love with someone. Victoria Grayson, your mother."

"Yeah, he slept with her and got her pregnant with me. I knew that." Charlotte said. I had to smile a bit at her use of sarcasm. She was just like me fresh out of juvie, using sarcasm and scorn against the world.

"But her rich husband had business with bad people, who caused horrific and atrocious crimes. Your father, well, your legal father anyway, didn't mean for Flight 197 to happen. He didn't know he was preparing to kill thousands. But to stay out of prison, to save his wife, Daniel, and eventually, you, he covered up the crime. He set up Dad."

Charlotte grew upset.

"_Conrad_… he set up my father?"

"And Dad went to prison for crimes he didn't commit, eventually being murdered in cold blood at the hands of a white-haired man hired by Conrad to finish the job."

Charlotte was silent.

"Meanwhile, his daughter went through hell in the foster care system, brought up believing he was a terrorist. When I got out of jail, Nolan Ross told me the truth: the Graysons set him up with the help of the Americon Initiative and several conspirators. I changed my name, travelled to Japan and trained to return to the Hamptons to exact revenge on every last conspirator."

Tears were now starting to well in Charlotte's eyes. "My mom…? She… did this to my father?"

I nodded. "You were right about her and the secrets."

She started crying there. "Why didn't you tell me, that you were my sister?"

"Believe me Charlotte, I wanted to. But I didn't want to put you in danger. Conrad and Victoria wouldn't hurt you, but people like the murderer of our father, and his friends at the Initiative wouldn't be held back."

"Who did murder our father?"

"A man with white hair and ice blue eyes, named Gordon Murphy. He started a riot in jail…" I envisioned the scene unfolding. "…posed as a US Marshal, he killed Dad without hesitation. And then he ran off with his wife. But he's dead now."

"Emily, d-did you…" she couldn't say it.

"Kill him?" I asked. She nodded. _No more secrets from this point forward._ I nodded. "Yes, Charlotte. He's dead. And so is another member of the Initiative, Helen Crowley."

"I can't say much else other than good riddance." Charlotte said. She was handling this surprisingly well for someone less emotionally composed than I was.

I stood up. "I should get going. But I promise to visit you again."

She grabbed my hand. "When you do, can you tell me about him?"

"About Dad you mean?"

She nodded. "Mom never told me anything. What he was like, what kind of a man he was…"

"I will. I will tell you, Charlotte. But for right now, I have another revelation to make." I said. "I'm pregnant."

She smiled and squealed "Congratulations!" until she saw my sullen look. "If… that's a good thing, you know."

"Not really, actually."

"Is it my brother's?" she asked.

"Most likely. I'm not going to keep it; I've just been too preoccupied with everything in life to get around to it."

As I was leaving, she hugged me. Hesitantly, I hugged back. I had no idea if I was doing it right, having never had a chance to test all the sister and mother in me on anyone in my life.


End file.
